So here's me doing what I usually do, writing around New Years. For most of my life, New Years is the only time I engage in some kind of reflective writing. I always enjoy it so much and tell myself that I should do it more often, but I never end up acting on that resolution.
That changed this last fall semester. I needed to take an Arts and Expression class and chose 'Creative Non-Fiction Writing' to satisfy my last distribution requirement (ironic for anyone that knew me growing up since practically everything I did revolved around art and expression: dance, yearbook designer and editor, theater, singing...). I was excited to get back to an English class after not taking one since my first semester of college when I was planning on an English and Education double major (I'm now a Government and Philosophy major...funny how things change).
Though the creative writing, and writing from the heart as well as the mind, took awhile for me to adjust to, the course made me realize how much I miss that form of expression. So here I am, again, pledging to make an effort to write more in the year ahead and breathe some new life into this old blog. My brother also just bought me a beautiful green leather journal from Anthropologie for Christmas, so that in itself is also a little incentive to write.
I was contemplating starting a whole new blog since I only had three posts on this one (one of which upon rereading I deleted) but decided not to. I like the design, the title, and the first blog entry gives a pretty good gist of who I am. I'm glad that the first word in the title of my blog is "peace". If there's been one word that I have tried to let guide my life over the past two years, it's been this one. Of course yoga helps with this. But more than that, I think my interest in studying ethics, social inequality, race relations, and politics is my way of preparing for a life and career that I hope will bring more peace to the world. After college, I plan on getting certified to teach vinyasa yoga because I truly believe as the founder of my yoga studio at home, Breathe, once said "If everyone practiced yoga, we would have world peace." I won't go to far into this since I think I talked about it in my first blog post and just wrote a whole essay on it for my Creative Non-Fiction portfolio (which I might post here eventually, along with some others). Anyways, I'd be happy teaching yoga for the rest of my life, so I think teacher certification is the most appropriate thing to do right after college. The PhD in political philosophy may come in the future or it may not, still need to spend time sorting out if that's the right thing for me.
Getting back to the point on peace, I wanted to share a quick story. I was driving to yoga a few days ago when I saw an older man riding one those bicycles that have the reclining backs. He was peddling slowly along the side of my street and as I drove up behind him I noticed the sign attached to the back of his seat which read "HONK FOR PEACE". I honked and he turned over his left shoulder as he pulled into his driveway and waved at me. If i had left me house just a minute later, I would have missed him.
I got thinking about what this man's sign does. I starting thinking about the small gestures we make and to what extent these actions can influence or impact the world. I'm a firm believer in the idea that everything we do to bring peace to ourselves has a direct positive impact on the world. If we as individuals enter the world after bringing peace to ourselves (be it through yoga, meditation, music, running, or whatever) we make the world around us more peaceful. I certainly notice that I am much less likely to get frustrated or angry at getting cut off on the road after a yoga class. On Christmas Eve morning, I saw a man get out of his car at a red light and (for some reason unknown to me) start yelling at the person in the car behind him. My first thought was, 'Nice Christmas spirit Mr.', my second was, 'that guy could have use a yoga class this morning' When we act with mindfulness in the world, we change it. We see the world from a perspective greater than just our own, and it is then when we can truly being to see the effect of our actions.
I would assume that most people wouldn't think that a simple honk is enough to "change the world". But I would argue that it does exactly that. I'm not saying that a honk will end hunger, war, and hatred, but it is a step in the right direction. That man's sign got me (and everyone else who drove down East Street that morning) to spend a few moments thinking about peace. It was a reminder that there is a world out there larger than ourselves, and a cause that truly affects us all which deserves our attention. I would hope that every person who saw this man's sign went about there day with a little more mindfulness, and that this mindfulness reverberated onto all the people they came to interact with that day.
Instead of ending with song lyrics, since truthfully I've been listening to a lot of pop music on my running playlist recently, I'll end with one of my favorite quotes,
"Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, handsome, talented, and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. It is not just in some; it is in everyone. And, as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence automatically liberates others." -Nelson Mandela
